PAGE 26 - TRANSFORMING THE CARIBBEAN PORT SERVICES INDUSTRY: TOWARDS THE EFFICIENCY FRONTIER
Furthermore, the type of yard equipment employed has an effect on the yard utilization of a container terminal. With yard cranes, either Rubber Tyre Gantry (RTG) cranes or Rail Mounted Gantry (RMG) cranes, a productivity of 1,100 TEU/ha can be achieved. When container storage is on chassis, not even 25% of that efficiency can be achieved.
Figure 2-3: Yard Utilization Per Type of Equipment TEU/ha 1,100 TEU/ha
1000 800 750 TEU/ha 600
OECS ports
500 TEU/ha
400
The stevedoring equipment in the OECS is limited. Stevedoring occurs mainly by using on-board cranes (see Figure 2-4 for an example of a vessel with onboard cranes). Productivity of on-board cranes is generally less than mobile harbour cranes, due to the influence of the waves on the vessel. The ports of St. Johns, Castries and Campden Park offer a single mobile harbour crane, used for stevedoring containers. Equipment used to handle horizontal moves (ground moves on the terminal) mainly comprises reachstack-
200
250 TEU/ha
Chassis
Reachstacker Straddle Carrier Yard Crane
ers. Reachstackers allow for a high degree of flexibility in stacking. The terminal areas in some OECS ports are spread out and not on an even level. Reachstackers can cope with suboptimal terminal areas, whereas yard cranes or straddle carriers require a more structured environment (see Figure 2-3 for a comparison of ground equipment).
Figure 2-4 Multipurpose Vessel with On-board Cranes